Notes that stay out of the way.
A fast, private notebook for lists, drafts, meeting notes and the odd thought at 2 a.m. Plain text at heart, with just enough formatting.
Free to try. No card required.
What you get
Phone, tablet, desktop
Start a note on the train and finish it at your desk. Offline edits catch up the moment you reconnect.
Zero-friction capture
The app opens straight into a new note. No account prompts, no templates to pick, just a cursor waiting for you.
Search that finds
Filter by tag, date or notebook, or simply type a word you remember. Old notes surface in milliseconds.
End-to-end encrypted
Your data lives in your account and can be exported or deleted in full whenever you decide.
About Papertrail
This started as a personal tool for meeting notes and late-night ideas, and it still behaves like one. Open the app and you are already in a new note. Type, add a tag if you feel like it, close it. Later, type a word you remember and the note is back. Sync keeps phone, tablet and desktop in step, conflicts are merged line by line, and nobody but you can read a single sentence.
How it works
- 1Open the app and start typing.
- 2Tag notes instead of filing them into folders.
- 3Install on your laptop to keep writing there.
- 4Export when you need a copy elsewhere.
Frequently asked questions
Are my notes private?
Yes. Notes are encrypted on your device before they are synced, and only you hold the key. We cannot read them.
Can I use it on several devices?
Your notebook follows you across phone, tablet and desktop. Changes appear everywhere within seconds.
What about exporting?
Export any note or the whole notebook as plain text, Markdown or PDF at any time. Your words stay yours.